Have I made a big mistake by switching to Apple!?

[Neonguy]

Sorry this is kind of long, but it will be my last rant to Apple. Just wanted to get some steam off! This could be just the Apple Store I'm at!

Ok, first I have my Mac Pro dies on me in 2 weeks, fresh out of the box ship from Apple Online Store! Take it to Apple Store and ended up waiting a month and a half to finally get another Mac Pro! My Mac Pro doesn't turn on so they order new circuit board and a power supply parts thinking power problem, which Apple don't stock extra. Find out I have to wait 1 month for them to get the parts. Only to find out it wasn't the problem. Then they said they gonna get me a new Machine instead. After a fews days, I call in and ask them if they need to know the spec of my Computer to get another one, but they brush me off by saying they know what they are doing, and all I have to do is just sit back and wait for the call. Great! 3 weeks have pass and they havent call. I find it strange and call them, they told me it was delay because they order a wrong Machine. They say mine was custume built machine and have bluetooth, etc. etc. Yeah no ****! I already ask them if they need to know my Computer spec, but no they just want to be smartass! So I have to wait another weeks for a new one to arrive. It finally come and I was able to pick it up. The least they could do for me is free upgrade for what they have put me through! Like take Ram from the dead machine and put in mine, but no. I get the same Computer back. Thought my problem was solved just yet...

Then come the 23 ACD I bought. First one got severe uneven back lighting. Take it to them and they brush me off by saying they have to look it overnight. I call them next morning just to find out one of the Apple Genius give me some BS crap like "All Apple monitor is like this! What you seeing is the backlight!" How lame! I refused to keep it after spending a 1k on this monitor! I have taken it them multiple times without any success. Finally I was lucky and brought it in when they were so busy that days. I take pictures to show them, and I demand them to look it in the back room. Their back room was full and busy so they swap it. Thanks god! Find out I get the same problem. To make it short I was on my 3rd one, when they finally not let me exchange anymore! My 3rd one was the worst one of them all! It have severe uneven lighting, pink color hue, colors discoration from right to left, and it have 3 dead pixels! I spend over 1 hours with them to convince them to let me exchange for another one. Find out they won't let me do it, even the manager come out and give me a hard time by saying they have to send it back to the factory to Calibrate it which could take weeks. Damn no thanks, I decided it not worth it so I return it, but they charge me $100 stocking fees even if it a defect. Even though they refuse to believe it by saying they don't see it. Okay, the funny things is none of them know anything about Computer tech stuff. The manager even told me he know me, and he say his team and him did a good job for me when my Computer doesn't turn on. He said I have a Mac Pro G5. Yes that what he said, and he swap me a Mac Pro Xeon, stating I get a free upgrade! What complete BS! Mine was already a Mac Pro Xeon. It's the exact same spec! I tell them this and he opologized. I left the store very unhappy lost $100 and a lot of my times and effort. I even go there in the middle of my job to go here since it crowded on weekend and never get reservation. I have to sign ahead and go there on weekdays. Well I walk out of there like I made a great mistake by switching to Apple.

Well, I think I will be calling Apple Care about this. Their business is so unprofessional that other victims shouldn't be effected anymore!

 

[Scarlet Fever]

really sorry to hear that... the apple centers around my area are much better than that. They let me open up new computers in the store to see if its working, and if it isn't, they grab a new one off the shelf (well maybe thats because i've been a customer of them for ages )

If theres another one around, change your Apple Center. You shouldn't have to put up with that kind of ignorance and laziness. Give AppleCare a call, and i wish you good luck with your complaint

 

[Neonguy]

really sorry to hear that... the apple centers around my area are much better than that. They let me open up new computers in the store to see if its working, and if it isn't, they grab a new one off the shelf (well maybe thats because i've been a customer of them for ages )

If theres another one around, change your Apple Center. You shouldn't have to put up with that kind of ignorance and laziness. Give AppleCare a call, and i wish you good luck with your complaint

I have already decided to return my 23 ACD back and get my money back! They are not getting my money when I pay over $1,000+ for it. I'm also going to call Apple Care and let them know about this. This is very unprofessional business from them!

 

[Scarlet Fever]

I have already decided to return my 23 ACD back and get my money back! They are not getting my money when I pay over $1,000+ for it. I'm also going to call Apple Care and let them know about this. This is very unprofessional business from them!

it is shocking. They must think people are idiots if they claimed that it was a Mac Pro G5, and that they can give you a free upgrade to your current product.

I've found that the independent suppliers give better service and prices than the apple-branded shops. If you have any independent suppliers around, give them a go. They can't be worse than those people.

 

[Umbongo]

Sadly there will always be customers who have awful experiences with even the best customer service companies, but that is no excuse. Take your issues as high as you can within Apple and demand compensation. Take it to the BBB and any other consumer watchdogs. No one should have to go through what you did.

 

[szsiddiq]

unfortunatly, sometimes customer service at particulars stores sucks...either cuz the managers are no good, the employees are untrained, the store is understaffed, or people who are working there are just having a bad day.

eitherway, its no excuse, but id stop dealing with that store ASAP and call Apple Care

 

[0010101]

Well chock another one up for the legendary Apple 'Quality' I keep hearing people preach about!

The truth is, you can run into the same hassles and problems with ANY manufacturer of electronic goods.. Dell, Compaq/HP, Sony, Toshiba, etc.

It's really just a matter of 'luck of the draw', but illustrates quite clearly that Apple isn't any less prone to ship a jacked up computer to a customer than anybody else.

I've looked around on the various threads here on MacRumors and seen dozens of similar (and worse) horror stories about 'bunk out of the box' machines, and Apples total lack of regard towards it's customers.

The good news is, once you get a Mac that works right, you'll have a computer that runs the best OS on the planet.. so there is light at the end of the tunnel!

It's just that some tunnels are longer than others.

 

[Neonguy]

For the price they charge, you would expect better qaulity control over their products, as well as better services. We talking about the price they charge for their so call high end computer that customers pay for that gone bad and offer to repair it instead of replacing it! I'm not only talking about just the Mac Pro, but with any other Apple Products. The faulty product will gone bad again after the repair, and the only option is to keep taking it back until they started loosing money so they finally replace it. Of course other manufacture will have the same defect issue, but you know what? You tend to get better services for it! Owning PC for 3 - 4 years I have not have a Computer went dead on me using it years after years. But even if it gone bad, they try to replaced it or even upgrade the Computer. This is the kind of services I want from Apple, but unfortunately they sell their product for such high price, they will a lot of times refused to except that the product is faulty. They only own 10% of customers using their Computers, but this is no excuse for the lack of services they give out to customers or they will even loose more customers!

I think they will received a lot more customers if they keep their customers happy! I'm myself isn't a happy customer, and I already see I'm not a lone. I love my Mac Pro, love the operating system. But somehow I feel very cheated and total disrespect from Apple! I can't return my Mac Pro because it's built to order. So I'm stuck with the machine and hope to god it doesn't broke down!

 

[Killyp]

This one won't, as long as your house isn't built on an old graveyard, you should be fine...

Shockingly bad service you've had though, I would be furious. Apple was only one week with my MacBook Pro, and it turned out there was no problem with it, just Apple Hardware Test being glitchy...

And NO you HAVN'T made a big mistake by switching to Apple, it's your Apple Centre that has made the big mistake...

 

[Counterfit]

3 ****ed up displays in a row? I hope you don't bother playing the lottery.

 

[0010101]

You know, I have to be honest.. about a month ago I was ready to pull the trigger on a 23" Apple Cinema Display. I'd have to order it online, since there isn't anybody within 100+ miles that sells one.

My decision at that time to go with an Apple display was based on my impression that Apple was top of the line stuff.. and since i'm accustomed to using Sony Trinitron tube monitors since my first Mac IIci, i've come to expect a high degree of visual clarity from my display devices.. so only 'top of the line' will do.

But after reading the horror stories from various places on the 'net.. I have to say i'm a little leery about spending a grand on a display only to have backlight issues, dead/stuck pixels, buzzing or humming sounds, and then getting nothing but the run around from Apple, or told to just deal with it and offered a $100 refund.

Hey.. i'm a cheap date..but if you're going to corn hole me, you could at least buy me dinner first.. or at the very least have the class to offer a reach around.

 

[lmalave]

Sorry to hear that - sounds like you've had extraordinarily bad luck. If I were in your shoes, I would certainly not use Apple products again, and would not recommend them to any of my friends.


P.S. this has not been my experience though. I'm on my 3rd mac (G3 iBook, G4 iBook, and now MacBook) with no problems.

 

[Nym]

I really feel sorry for people who try to make "the switch" only to be screwed by some frustrated Apple Store employees.. The thing is, bad professionals are everywhere and it anoys me more than anything....
You should really contact Apple directly and make a HUGE complain about their services, let them burn a bit, cause a f*cking commotion if that's what it takes for them to get it right!
Still, keep your Mac Pro, the hardware and software Apple makes isn't made by those turds that work in the store (luckily) and there's nothing like it... I hope you get it right sometime and that you see that there's only good stuff when switching to Mac's. I hope your story really is an isolated incident...

 

[Neonguy]

3 ****ed up displays in a row? I hope you don't bother playing the lottery.

I did some research and look at my Receipt and notice they stocks a lot of old specs of the 23 ACD in their store. 3 of my receipt show serial number that I know isn't an early 2006 model but rather late 2005! So yes, part of me is bad luck but it obvious that I will keep getting bad 23 ACD since they have more old spec then then newer one. I once told one of the employee about the serial number that show my ACD is old spec made in late 2005. He told it's not possible and those information is confidentle, so there is no ways I can tell the production date. Which isn't very helpful to me because that would tell me I'm a complete idiot and don't know anything.

Also, they should've let me exchange my 23 ACD which had the pink issue. 3 of the tech person saw it, some of them don't. The manager don't see it so he isn't letting me exchange it. Don't know what's the big deal is by letting me fire up another new one out of the box. And if pink issue is gone, I walk home happy with it! But this is why I hate retail store like Apple Store. Hard to get good services because it range from store to store. And you cannot exchange anything until the Apple Genius look at it. He can be an ass and say nothing wrong with it and you're screw!